Planing-machine



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1."

RAWSON. PLANING MACHINE may Patengggl June 21, 1892.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

M. s. RAWSON. PLANING MACHINE.

- No. 477,610 Patented June 21, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIQE.

MANLY s. RAWSON, or JAMAICA, AssIeNoR'oF ONF-HALF TO H. J. STEWART, orLONDONDERRY, VERMONT.

PLANlNG-IVIACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 477,610, dated June 21,1892.. Application filed June 5, 1891.; Serial No. 395,248. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MANLY S. RAwsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Jamaica, in the county of WVindham and State of Vermont,have invented certain new and. useful Improvements inPlaning-lvlachines, of which the following is a specification, referencebeing had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention aims to provide a machine by the use of whichroughly-formed chair-backs may be planed or dressed off on their convexsides rapidly and without close attention on the part of the operator.

A further object of the invention is to construct such a machine withthe fewest possible parts capable of effecting the desired results.

These objcotsI accomplish by the use of the mechanism illustrated in theannexed drawings, and hereinafter fully described.

The invention consists, generally stated, in a peculiararrangement ofrotary knives above an endless carrier which engages the roughchair-backs and carries them to the knives, by which they are planed andfinished on their convex sides; and it consists, further, in certainnovel details of construction and arrangement of the parts, all of whichwill be pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a planing-machineconstructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a side View ofthe same. Fig. 3 is a plan view thereof. Fig. 4 is a longitudinalsection of the same, taken on theline t 40f Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 isadetail view of a portion of one of the carrier-chains. Fig. dis aperspective View of a chair-back blank after having been planed by mymachine.

The supportingframe A may be of any suitable construction, and consists,essentially, in a pair of beams B and suitable supportinglegs therefor.Between the beams B, I provide a bed-plate 0, having a convex uppersurface corresponding to the curvature of the chair-backs, as mostclearly shown in Fig. 1. This bed-plate is provided near its edges withthe longitudinal grooves D, through which the carrier-chains E pass.These chains, it

will be noticed, are endless and pass over sprocket wheels or pulleys Fat the ends of the machine, and they are provided at regular intervalswith lugs or teeth G, which 1mpinge against the front edges of thechair- L backs, and thereby engage the same, so as to carry them to theknives.

Any suitable means may be employed to drive the sprocket-ch ainssuch,for instance, as that shown, which is as follows: From a pulley H on oneend of the cutting-knife shaft a belt (shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1of the drawings) is run to a band-wheel I-I, loosely mounted on theextended end of the front sprocket-shaft, which ban d-wheel carries apulley, from which a belt (also shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1) runs toa band-wheel P. The latter is mounted on ashaft O, which by means of atrain of gears N, M, J, and I communicates motion to the rearsprocketwheel shaft, and so to the chains.

As shown in Fig. 5, the chains are provided at suitable distances apartwith laterally-projecting lips or flanges G, which engagelat-erally-extending slits in the walls of the guidegrooves D in thebed-plate to prevent any possibility of the chains rising out of saidgrooves when passing therethro ugh. The cutter-head Q is mounted on topof the frame at about the center thereof, and is provided at one endwith apulley R, from which by means of a belt (shown by dotted lines inFig. 1) the same is driven. The cutter-head consists of a shaft havingthe fiat or angular central portion S, and to this angular portion Isecure the brackets or knife-holders T, which have lips or flanges U, towhich the knives V are bolted. The knives are secured to the brackets bymeans of bolts passing through slots X in the knives and formed on orembedded in the concave lips of the brackets and the nuts W, mounted onthe ends of the said bolts and turned home againstthe knives. The knivescan thus be adjusted to and away from the edge of the lip to cut intothe chairback to a greater or. less extent, and also to compensate forthe wear on the edge of the knife. The cutting-knives are arranged tostand at angles oblique to the direction of travel of the chair-backs,with their central portions in position to engage the same first, sothat in cutting they will begin at the cen- Passing under thecutter-head and secured to the transverse beams on the top of the machine is a central longitudinal presser-bar Y,

which bears upon the chair-backs as they pass 1 through the machine andholds them firmly upon the bed-plate so that they cannot twist.

Said bar Y is held yieldingly upon the passing backs by means of twoflat springs q and y, arranged to press downwardlyupon shanks, whichextend upwardly through the framebeams at opposite ends of the bar, asclearly shown in Fig. 4. The cutting-knives are separated by a spacesubstantially equal to the width of the presser-bar, as the same extendsbeneath them. The bed-plate, it is to be observed, is adjustablevertically toward or from the knives, as by screws 1) b, in order toenablebacks of different thicknesses tobe planed and to regulate thedegree of planing which shall be done. The slack in the carrier chains Epermits this slight adjustment of the bed without the necessity of acorresponding ad-' j ustment of the sprocket-wheels upon which saidchains are mounted. The longitndinallycurved rough chair-backs w areplaced over the bed-plate at the front end of the machine and arrangedagainst a transverse beam a, to the rear side of which I secure thesprings b, that bear upon the chair-backs and hold them steady upon thebed-plate vuntil after they have passed under the presser-bar. I haveshown, and in practice I prefer to employ, a

small central cutter 0, near the beam at, which will cut away thesurface of the chair-back slightly at its center, so that it may easily.

pass under the presser-bar. The cutter c, in addition to forming asurface upon the blank, whereby the latter may easily pass under thepresser-bar, also reduces the central portion of the blank, so that whenthe latter has been operated upon by the cutters V it will have receivedits proper contour. This cutter may be driven from a pulley on the largeor main cutter-shaft.

The operation of my machine will be readily understood. The blanks orrough .chairbacks to are piled at the front end of the machine, as seenin Fig. 2,and the machine then set in motion. As the chains pass underthe chair-backs the lugs or teeth thereon willimpinge against the frontedge of the bottom chair-back, and thereby push the same rear- 1 wardtoward the cutter-head. As soon as the 5 back has passed entirely fromunder the lot of backs the next one will fall upon the chain by theforce of gravity and the operationt The 5 back is carried through themachine by the of feeding to the knives be repeated.

chains and will be successively operated upon by the knives, as will bereadily understood, so that the entire upper surface will be madesmooth.

It is obvious from the foregoing description, taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings, that I have produced a planing-machine thatwill be automatically operated and that the only attention needed is tokeep up the supply of rough backs.

The machine is composed of very few parts, and these few are arranged insuch a manner as to be readily accessible for the purpose of repairingor cleaning, and therefore the cost of maintaining the machine will bevery slight. The convex bed-plate and the presser-bar arranged above thesame effectually prevent the twisting of the backs as they pass throughthe machine, and consequently the danger of spoiling the backs or ofdamaging the machine is reduced to a minimum. By moving in channels orgrooves the chains are maintained in. straight lines, and they arethereby prevented from sagging, so as to become disengaged from theback, besides being prevented from disengaging themselves from thesprocket-wheels. It is evident that the backs of the blanks are onlyplaned often their upper or convex sides by this machine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

1. In a planing-machine, the combination of a frame, atransversely-curved bed-plate supported by said frame, a cutter-shaftsupported by said frame and arranged transversely of and above thebed-plate, separated cutting devices mounted on said shaft, having theiredges curved to correspond to the curvature of the bed-plate, apresser-bar arranged above the bed-plate and between the cuttingdevices, and an independent cutting device forward of the presser-barand in line with it, substantially as described.

2. In a planing-machine, the combination of a frame, a vertically-adjusta'ble bed-plate mounted in said frame, a cutter-shaft mounted on saidframe transversely of and above the bed plate, separated cutting devicesmounted on said shaft, a'pressure-bar mounted above "the bed-plate andbetween the cutting devices,.an independent rotary cutter forward of thepresser-bar, carrier-chains running in longitudinal grooves in thebed-plate and having ,1 the upwardly projecting lugs, sprocket-wheelsfor said chains, mounted on transverse shafts in the framing of themachine, and suitable operating mechanism,snbstantially as .described.I,

In testimony whereof I aifix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

MANLY S. RAWSON.

'Witnesses:

AMos A. GooDELL, CLARENCE K. GooDELL.

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